Debate Without Trump Gets Better Ratings Than Last Debate with Trump

Donald Trump’s campaign manager predicted that Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate on Fox News would only get “about 2 million” viewers because Trump refused to show up. In fact, “Fox News likely had 11 million to 13 million viewers for the debate,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reports.

Thursday’s debate ended up getting higher ratings than the the last debate in which Trump participated. “Fox’s Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data from so-called metered markets,” reports CNN’s Stelter. “The most recent GOP debate, televised two weeks ago on the Fox Business Network, had a household rating of 7.4.” It’s possible that Thursday’s debate had up to 2 million more viewers than the January 15 debate that included Trump.

Trump said he wouldn’t debate on Thursday because Fox News and moderator Megyn Kelly had not been nice to him. Trump instead held a rally and fundraiser for veterans. The leader of one veterans group called the fundraiser a political “stunt.” In recent years Trump’s charitable foundation has given more money to the Clinton Foundation than it has given to veterans groups.